good morning. there is a lot happening in the race for president. new polls, new video, gaffes. all of them could change the strategy heading into the super bowl of politics tonight, the first debate. the first time president obama and mitt romney have met in person in five years. tonight of course, they will share the stage in denver. a coin toss decided the order. president obama speaks first, mitt romney will have the last word. romney ran the gauntlet during the primary. he did 23 debates. the president has practiced five mock debates before tonight and it's not too late to convince voters, there's a new poll, florida and virginia virtually tied. in ohio, the president has a comfortable seven-point lead. last night, conservatives started circulating this video.

a 2007 speech that then senator obama gave at hampton university, criticizing the federal response to hurricane katrina. >> people ask me whether they thought race was the reason the response was so slow. well, no, this information was color blind in its incompetence. >> in north carolina, joe biden went off script and said the middle class has been buried the last four years. this morning, they've turned a clip into a web video. >> the middle class in america is hurting. >> middle class has been buried the last four years. >> let me bring in dan rather, anchor and editor of dan rather reports and national journal's white house correspondent. good morning. let's address that video right off the bat. robert gibbs was asked this morning if he's worried about

the optics of it. here's what he said. >> if the republicans want to defend the bush administration's response to katrina, i'm sure the president would give them his time during the debate to do that. but look, i am, i have to say i'm a little amazed that as you mentioned, a widely covered speech, likely by people at your network, is somehow caused a cur fluff l five years later. >> i love that. so, dan, i guess question is there is no doubt about this fact that it was covered. it was open to the public. it was talked about during that time. is it smart of the republican party to bring this back up or does it smack them a little bit of desperation? >> i'm not sure. >> a little surprised though they want to bring up the response or non response of the bush administration to katrina in any context. because there's a negative wake on that, if you will, so to

discuss it in any way, shape or form, i understand what they are trying to do. desperation, look, both the candidates are desperate at this stage of the campaign. you can see president obama may be a little less. let's don't kid ourselves. they're desperate. both sides. obama with a shade if you want to read it that way. but they're both desperate. i don't think this is going to amount to a lot. my only surprise is that voters want to talk about bush's response to katrina at all in any context. i would think they'd want to be eight counties away from any discussion of that. >> republicans are also trying to get traction on the joe biden remarks and besides the video, it's become part of paul ryan's stump speech. >> vice president biden just today said that the middle class over the last four years has been quote, buried. we agree. of course the middle class has been buried. they're being burieded by

regulatio regulations, taxes, by borrowing. they're being buried by the obama administration's economic failures. >> major, does joe biden's statement, this video, do either play into the debate tonight? >> i don't think the video is going to play into the debate. you look at what pollsters find from surveying voters, they want to nope, especially tonight, what is your characterization of president obama, what's you've done for four years, mitt romney and what are you going to do going forward. i do not expect this to be about a video from 2007. i think if romney were to do that, it would be a strategic mistake. as for paul ryan, this has been part of a romney campaign tendency. everything from the convention, acutely so, maybe a bit before that. to take whatever sound bite of the day is and to build a narrative around that. that doesn't reenforce the larger one for the romney campaign. look, the american public is well aware of the economic

situation our nation is in. it's a recovery, but the slowest and least satisfied since the great depression. something has to be said about that and directions have to be pointed at the future of the policy. that's what the governor is going to do tonight, but what has been interesting and not necessarily in every intans helpful to it, so to jump on one each day and pretend that's the news or the driver instead of having larger narrative about the present and future. >> dan, if you believe in that larger idea of the narrative, what should the narrative be for romney tonight and should it be let's take this one great idea, pound it home as many times as you can or hope something sticks? >> no, the former. look, american presidential elections are usually decided on which candidate the public at large feels has the best vision of the future. our presidential elections are generally speaking, not about

the past, but about the future. that's number one. so, in case of the narrative. number two, that we know that in politics as in so much else in life, after these debates are over, there will be a lot of people who can tell you specifically what any candidate said, but they will know how that candidate made them feel. so, the object and target for both candidates in the debates is for people to walk away feeling the person who handled it best. certainly people they want specifics, so governor romney, he needs to tell how with some detail his administration will be different from not just the obama administration, but from the president bush. with president obama, his challenge is to spell out to people. tell them how things are going to be different. in his second term than they were in his first term without acknowledging that the first term was necessarily bad, but

people don't want same old same old. they want a vision of the future and we've come away to say the end comment at the debates tonight may be the most important part. each candidates wants to play, the first object is make no mistake. make no big error. if they have a nice, closing argument, then they can come out. i don't think president obama wants any drama. no drama obama because in debates, normally sort of cool. i don't think he can afford to overplay that hand tonight. for mitt romney, it's a good opportunity to attack, but not be seen as being some sort of attack dog. put the president on the defensive. >> let me bring in jason chaffitz from utah. the question about the 47%. we saw in our "wall street journal" poll. talk about things that make

people feel one way or another about the candidate. this has had a very negative effect. this statement mitt romney made on the voting public, so how does he answer that question about the 47%? because to say that i want to be the president for the 100% clearly has not resognated. >> well, look, mitt romney was the very first person to say he wasn't very eloquent in the way he said that, but i think when he can look the president in the eye, the american people in the eye and say he's taking on this role and trying to become the president of the united states because he wants us all to succeed, people are going to have to judge for themselves. that's the mitt romney i know. that's why i think mitt romney's running. not to get the 1% to move ahead, but so that everybody can move ahead. create economic opportunity in this country. >> it does seem, based on the video and the video alone, they have made a decision about how they feel about it and what they think he feels about the 47%. so, what does he say to those

people who have been affected negatively by it? how does he change their minds that it wasn't exactly what they thought it was? >> well, he looks them in the eye and explains what he wants to do. his vision for the country. what he was trying to convey. if he does that in a very sincere way, if mitt is just mitt, he's going to do just fine. i've been to over 100 events with mitt romney. he's compassionate, confident, passionate, energetic. he's all of these things. if they see mitt romney the way i've seen them, there's no doubt in my mind that mitt romney will be the next president of the united states. >> and a lot has been made by republicans about joe biden's remarks about the middle class yesterday. let me play for your what stephanie cutter said. >> the middle class has been buried by the same policies that mitt romney and paul ryan want to go back to. you shouldn't be cutting taxes for those at the top and asked the middle class to talk about it. >> should mitt romney talk about that tonight or does he not go

for the as we just heard major say, sort of responding to the video clip of the day? >> i agree with dan rather and major garrett were saying. the way and the manner in which you do this, you can disagree, but you don't want to be disagreeable. there's a real difference and a fine line there, but clearly, mitt romney is running because the prescription that president obama and joe biden have put forward over the last four years is failing this country and mitt romney will then articulate what he wants to do for the country moving forward. this one's focused totally on domestic policy. that will give the voters a great opportunity to see what the democratic line going back to bush and all that is simply not true. that is not what mitt romney is advocating. absolutely not. >> it is a domestic debate, although some people have indicated that part of romney's game plan may be to talk about the president's handling of the attack in libya that killed chris stevens as part of a

larger narrative about leadership. you have sent a leader to secretary of state clinton saying diplomats requested additional security and that those requests were denied. can you tell us more about that? >> in my letter, we outlined 13 security interest attacks, threats against western targets. let's remember that in the six months that led up to 9/11, which was the death of four americans, the death of an ambassador, first time since the 1970s that has happened. they did ask for increased security. they actually diminished the security pro file. did you know for instance that twice, our compound there in bengha benghazi, sovereign territory, was bombed two times? the white house had never told the american people that let alone the word. did you know that the british ambassador had two assassination attempts on his life? did you know that secretary, ambassador stevens had a facebook post showing where he

runs, his picture, and people were advocating they kill the ambassador. all of these things in the six months running up to 9/11 and his ultimate death. it was not just some spontaneous video out there that caused this. there were lots of signs out there and we need this administration to come clean on it. >> thank you so much for taking the time. >> thank you. >> major, what do you think? is mitt romney going to work this into the debate? >> you saw mitt romney's op-ed in the "wall street journal" monday. a three levelled argument about economic growth, reasserting american values and doing something different than the obama administration has done on foreign policy as it relates to the arab spring. i think if the governor wants to, he can use this format, which is open ended on the economy, talk about the economy, but also about american strength and how that can or will be affected in the future economically. so i wouldn't be surprised at all if what you saw in that op-ed that governor romney wrote

for the "wall street journal" doesn't become part of a response to a larnler conversation about not just economics in america, but the economic projection, the values projection and foreign policy pro jex. >> let me ask you about the deb krzyzewskied. it's going to be six segments. the moderator has some ability to let it go and bring the conversation more broadly. breathe more than we've seen in the past. does that favor one person or the other? >> no, i don't think so. i think as you know, who goes first was determined by coin flip and there's a slight advantage of having your opponent go first. in the opening, romney won the coin toss because president obama goes first and that means that mitt romney can make adjustments after he's spoken, even after that some. i think in the larger scheme of things, he's very experienced in

this. he's a complete pro, but these are not actually debates. we've had this conversation before. they are interesting televised appearances with some aspects of debate. but i do think that the answer to something you raised earlier, that from mitt romney may indeed want to refer to what happened in benghazi and libya, oversights and so forth, and the context of a larger leadership. however, in my personal opinion and this is shared by a lot of republicans, that anytime mitt romney spins isn't on the economy and jobs, tonight's debate as much he can, he's going to be time wasted for him. in the larger picture because that's the wedge that he can win. >> dan rather, always great to have you here. thank you so much. major garrett, i don't know about you, i cannot wait. cannot wait. thank you. >> i can't wait. >> thank you. just terrible news out of

syria where there was a horrific scene this morning. at least 33 people were killed. dozens maybe trapped in the rubble after a wave of suicide bombings in the main square in aleppo. three were car bombs. at least one building was levelled. another blast went off outside the chamber of commerce nearby. the syrian government blames the rebels, but activists say syrian troops planted those bombs. [ male announcer ] wouldn't it be cool if we took the nissan altima and reimagined nearly everything in it? gave it greater horsepower and best in class 38 mpg highway... advanced headlights... and zero gravity seats? yeah, that would be cool. ♪ introducing the completely reimagined nissan altima. it's our most innovative altima ever. nissan. innovation that excites. ♪

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it's the final countdown and we know mitt romney has been practicie inine ining zingers f debate.

he doesn't want a good line to fall flat or come off as too aggressive. well, neither of those was the problem when lloyd benson delivered this classic line against dan quyale in the debate of 1988. >> i served with jack kennedy. jack kennedy was a friend of mine. senator, you're no jack kennedy. >> so, historically, have these showdowns made a real difference in the race? i'm joined now by michael beschloss. good to see you. good morning. >> same here, chris. >> we know mitt romney is practicing, but are they ever spontaneous or always rehearsed? >> they're usually rehearsed because there's too much at stake and you're right. sometimes, a pennant can say something that sounds so rehearsed it just doesn't work. for instance, george h.p. bush when he was vice president was debating against geraldine fer

row and said why not harvest moon. >> challengers can benefit from being on stage with an incumbent. we've seen that before. take a look at this clip. >> ask yourself, are you better off than you were four years ago? >> now, this race has often been compared to the carter reagan race in 1980 and the romney campaign has used that line of attack. is that the idea of what you think we might hear tonight? what kind of zinger are we going to hear? >> well, in reagan's case, he took from franklin roosevelt, who used that in the 1930s over the radio, so these things have a long lineage. i think you're right about challengers. you look at all the debates where there's been an incumbent debate. almost always, the challengers

wins the debate. exceptions. gerald ford in '76 against jimmy carter, who felt very nervous debating with an incumbent president. he was little bit modest. then clinton and bob dole. >> howard dean said that president obama should not make the same mistake al gore did in 2000 against george w. bush. >> that's not the way america's meant to be. >> and there, there's nixon with the flop sweat. george h.w. bush looking at his watch. appearances count, don't they? >> they really do. and a professional knows that. george h.w. bush in that debate, that third one in richmond in 1992, he was looking at his watch because he was trying to make the point that one of the

other candidates had run over time. it didn't really compute this was sending the message that he was impatient, just the kind of message he didn't want to send. >> humor can be an effective tool, diffuse a weakness. >> i will not make age an issue of this campaign. i am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience. >> and at that moment, a lot of people said well, there's the ball game. including his opponent. >> including walter mondale. >> what do you think about humor as a tool in this debate tonight? >> you'd better be a very accomplished actor like reagan or else it probably won't work. in that case, reagan said certain things that might have given rise to further worry he was too old to serve a second term. got things wrong. ran over in his final concluding

remarks, but that joke got so much attention, sort of suckeded all the oxygen away from all those things and assured him a win. >> looking at history then, michael, final question, what are the chances this could move the needle? >> reagan is the best example. 1980. before that debate, there were about 10% of americans undecided. reagan in that debate looked like a president and also calmed a lot of americans who were with holding support because they were worried reagan would get them into a war with a soviet union. >> michael beschloss, great to have you. thank you. >> same here. will the looming fiscal cliff and a tax hike on motist households get congress to hammer out a budget deal? well, a small group of lawmakers hopes so. they planned a secret retreat next week to work one out. politico's reporting the

bipartisan gang of six is getting back together an that they've added two more is that rights. they won't say exactly where the meeting is, just that they're trying to come up with a plan to deal with the expiring tax cuts and cuts to defense spending. time for your business entrepreneur of the week. andrew rosen is the fourth generation owner of rosenwach tanks. you'll find the tanks on hundreds of new york city roofto rooftops. he says you don't throw out what works. you just build on it. for more, watch your business this sunday morning at 7:30 on msnbc. [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare? that's a good thing, but it doesn't cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company.

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to politics now where tonight is not only the big debate, but it is barack and michelle obama's 20th anniversary. if you're not sure what the get the happy couple, david axelrod suggests a campaign donation. mitt romney posed for this picture in denver and we know he ordered the burrito bowl with pork, black beans, by the way, that guac costs extra, but you do need to fuel up for the big debate. where will you be watching? well, bars and restaurants across the country are treating it like the political super bowl that it is. bargain beer, deals on wings and in some cases, analysis by the people you're used to seeing on

tv. for a really fun list of watch parties from coast to coast, check out my must red read. [ clock ticking ] [ male announcer ] there's a better way... v8 v-fusion. vegetable nutrition they need, fruit taste they love. could've had a v8...

mitt romney has been formlating his response to what will likely be the least surprising question of the night, asking him to defend his 47% remarks. he has been paying a price with voters. our new poll shows 45% have a more negative view of romney after hearing those comments. let's bring in nbc news political analyst and former governor of pennsylvania, ed rendell and former huckabee campaign manager, chip salsman. he has tried the 100% chip. what can he do? >> really, we know this question's coming.

it's going to come early in the debate and set the tone for the rest of the debate. i think he needs to take it head on and talk about the economy. the jobs we have not created ore the last four years. take it right to barack obama and try to turn this question into an offensive against barack obama's economy over the last four years. i think that's the best chance he's got. i think he needs to be careful of sometimes with the question everybody nows you're going to get, you kind of practice it and practice it and instead of it being a heartfelt question, it becomes a robotic response. >> maybe you get a little preview of it because the romney campaign released it directly looking into the campaign video. let me play a little clip of that. >> more americans live in poverty than when president obama took office. we should measure our compassion by how many of our fellow americans are able to get good paying jobs. not by how many are on welfare. >> governor rendell, we've kind of gotten this prevau that they

plan to emphasize different numbers. numbers about the economy they think will make americans think twice about whether the president is really the guy to lead the next four years. what do you think about this strategy? >> i think they can do that, but i don't think they're going to connect with voters an repair some of the damage. what i would do is look into the camera and say, you know, folks, i reviewed that 47% tape and when i looked at it, i shook my head because it wasn't what i meant to say. and it's certainly not what i believe. what i believe is that this administration, because of its failures to produce jobs, has forced people on to welfare. it's forced people to live in an entitlement type of atmosphere. people don't want to be on welfare. they want to work. and i'm going to make sure with my economic plan, we give people that opportunity. that's real compassion. that's real caring for people. >> as both of you know, mitt romney's 47% comments have been

the focus of three attack ads and now, one labor union is add tog that a series of new videos, including sanitation workers who actually picked up mitt romney's trash from his home in california. >> my name is richard hayes and i pick up mitt romney's trash. when i'm 55, 60 years old, i know my body's going to break down. i don't know mitt romney doesn't care about that. zbr and one of the stars of another video in that series is joan raymonday, president of ask me local 127. thanks for joining us. good morning. >> how are you? >> i'm well. that video has more than a million views on youtube so far. the message is pretty harsh. do you think it's fair? >> i think it, richard hayes is speaking from the heart. i think it's more than fair. we think that mitt romney is out of touch with regular working folk like richard hayes.

and he is doesn't care about the 47%. he wants to gut public workers. but we're not the problem. to us, the problem is these big tax policies that gives breaks for the super rich. so we just wanted to go and show what a regular working class person picks up trash every day, very hard job. and is representative of the struggles that are going on today for many, many workers in america. and we want to defend the middle class. >> well, when mitt romney was governor of massachusetts, he spent a series of days doing jobs with people who were regular public workers. he actually wrote about it in his book. he recalled how he collected trash for a day. he said people didn't seem to

notice him. this was the quote. it was as if i was invisible. perhaps because a lot of us don't think garbage men with worthy of notice. i disagree. anyone who works that hard deserves our respect. do you really think mitt romney doesn't care about the 47% or just have a different approach when it comes to jobs in the economy? >> i think that he can't relate. i think that he doesn't care because he spoke from his heart when he didn't know that the cameras were rolling. when he was on that garbage truck for a couple of hour, he knew the cameras were rolling and it's one thing to work on a garbage truck for a couple of hours for a show basically. it's another thing to do it every day, eight, ten hours a day for 20 years. >> joan raymond, it's good of you to come on the program, especially to get up early for us. let me bring back governor rendell and chip. listening to her and a lot of

people like her, is that what mitt romney has to think about tonight when he's saying here's what i really meant? >> i think he does. i think the biggest challenge mitt romney's got to do is connect with those folks who think he's just a rich guy who doesn't care and i think those who know mitt romney the best, he's a compassionate guy who's done a lot for not only his community, country, state and church, giving millions in charity, he's a compassionate guy, but it's hard to connect with him and i think he's going to have a real opportunity tonight to connect with the american people and say this is what i believe and this is why and in a way that people believe him. >> if you look at the polls, nothing has moved the polls as much these comments have. this video, this 47% video. what do you think strategically barack obama should do? should he, it's had an impact, i'm not going to go after that hard or does he said i know this

is working and he's got a couple of zingers of his own on the 47%. >> it depends. the question will probably come to governor romney first. it depends on his answer. if he connects, the way you connect is say you screwed up. i made a mistake in that 47% i talked about forcing people who work two or three jobs, but only earn $19,000 so they're not eligible to pay taxes. our brave soldiers from in that cat cat. seniors, disabled vets. if he does well in taking on he made a mistake, and it's difficult to admit, if he does that and pivots, then i think president obama can't pile on. he's got to then respond to what governor romney is saying. he created 5.1 million jobs.

31 straight months of job creation. i inherited the biggest mess since the depression and although it's not where i'd like it to be, we've done well and will continue to do well. if you can convince the republicans in congress to pass my jobs bill, the cbo said we'd have 2 million more jobs. governor romney ought to be careful about zingers. especially ones that demean the president. the base will love those, but for the independent, undecided voters, it's a bad tactic. >> it is going to be a fascinated night. thanks, guys. also making news this morning, american airlines says it now knows the reason why seats have come loose on two planes. clamps were apparently improperly installed. crews plan to check 11 more planes today. an inspection found four others with the same problem. mike mcqueary has filed a

whistleblower lawsuit against penn state, claiming the school mistreated him ever since he reported seeing jerry sandusky showering with a young boy. he's suing for $4 million. he says his contract wasn't renewed because he cooperating with police. there's been no comment from penn state. the search of a suburban detroit driveway for jimmy hoffa has turned up nothing but dirt. soil samples found no evidence of human remains. that dig was prompted by a tip from someone police call a credible source. new signs of a housing market rebound. mandy drury is here with what's moving your money. >> it's a good report. u.s. home prices are starting to come off the bottom. you've got market research saying prices were up 4.6% in august from a year ago and that is the largest year over year gain in six years. keep in mind though that many

home prices are still down about 0% from their 2006 peak. why is this happening? a number of reasons. one being tightening supplies of homes for sale. now, existing single family sells were up 9%, but the supply of listed homes for sale was down 18%. limited supply. hopefully pushes up prices. >> let's talk about homes for the 1%. a couple of celebrity cribs just went on the market. hillary swank. >> not 1%, but 0.11%. her home is listed for $9.5 million and you know what? it's a good investment because she bought that home in 2007 for $5.8 million and guess how much a monthly payment would be? >> a lot. >> $32,900. assuming 20% down payment on a 30-year fixed. and then let me show you p. diddy's apartment here in new york city. this is listed for $8.5 million.

it was originally a three bedroom apartment. probably thinking $8.5 million for a three bedroom apartment? he customized the place to be just one bedroom with a huge media and piano room. the money is staggering. also a good investment because he bought that in 2005 for $3.8 million and he's got some pretty swanky neighbors as well including the spiritual guru, deepak chopra. >> and doesn't want any visitors. >> one bedroom and a big media room. $8.5 million. >> thank you. >> thank you. well, there's no shortage of celebs with big money for big homes. here are the five highest paid women in hollywood. rihanna and ellen, they took in $53 million between may of 2011 and 2012. three, taylor swift, 57 million.

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thanks. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'. republican lawmakers will hold a hearing next week to talk about what they call the administration's failures to respond to libyan security threats. jason chaffetz is leading the charge. here's what he told me earlier this hour. >> they did ask for increased security. not only did they not get it, they diminished the security pro file. did young for instance that twice, our compound in benghazi was bombed two times? there were lots of signs out there and we need this administration to come clean on it. >> i'm join ed by maryland democratic congresswoman donna wed wards. good morning. those republican lawmakers also sent a letter to secretary clinton saying they want answers

to security questions. do you want answers as well or do you think there's politics involved? >> clearly politics involved. i think it's always appropriate for the congress and administration to share what has happened in a really tragic circumstance. i also think it's important for us to understand that we have an evolving security situation and that it's appropriate for us to evaluate the circumstances of what happened in libya. not to expect that we will know all the answers at the beginning as we will know later on and it's clear that the administration needs to communicate in the appropriate way to the congress. i would like to see that take place in the forum of our intelligence committees and not in these broad public oversight hearings because i think it's important for congress to have all the facts before we start making judgments. >> there were some democrats acknowledged that,

inconsistencies in what the white house and administration had to say about this. whether they decided it was terrorism. the president was slowing to talk about that. are these kinds of, the kinds of questions you think that will resognate in the campaign possibly in the debate tonight? >> i think the american public has a lot of confidence as i do. in the president and the secretary of state and handling these really volatile and complex issues. i don't think it's going to play because i think there are a lot of other concerns that americans have as well. i think when ever you have a tragedy like what happened in benghazi, it's really important for us to step back from the politics and understand what happened because obviously, we want to avoid that. in the future. but we also want to make sure we didn't miss some cues and you can only do that in an evaluation of our intelligence

and intelligence gathering. it's clear you cannot know at the beginning under that kind of complexity, what the end looks like. you can't know fully what happens until that intelligence is fully evaluated. >> quickly, a very different kind of question. there's so much going on with the airlines. you have american airlines, which is in bankruptcy and seats are coming loose. you have numerous reports about how airlines are making so much of their profits out of all these fees that they're adding. tell me what you think the state of the american airline industry is and what's your major concern for consumers out there right now? >> i think what i thought all invest in our nation's infrastructure and that includes our airports and includes making sure that we have the safest airlines possible. i think that we do, frankly. and i want to see american airlines given the precarious

financial situation that they're in, make sure they do right by their employees, but also do right by consumers, by users, by travelers, but we've got to invest in the nation's infrastructure. infrastructure. airlines are one [ male announcer ] how do you measure happiness?

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